I have recently bought a 2 TB Seagate external drive. Sadly, it was the kind that also needs a power cord, not just a USB cable and my foot got tangled in those cables and the drive flew off the desk and crash landed on the floor.
Now it seems to power on, because it does make a noise like it's turning on, but Windows and the BIOS won't detect it anymore, plus it has a kind of a looping click, and it seems to "struggle". Any chance I can get anything back from it?
I am considering taking it to a data recovery service but since it likely has mechanical damage, it would cost me between 160 and 640 Euros plus 24% VAT where I live. Any suggestions? Should I take it back for warranty or should I go with it directly to a recovery firm? It's pretty thorny, since I don't really know how bad it is. If it's real bad, taking it to the retailer might make it unrecoverable, because it is usually advisable to use it as little as possible after messing it up, and they won't care much about my data. If I take it to a recovery firm directly, they may open it for evaluation which might invalidate the warranty, plus, if the hard drive isn't completely fubared and taking it back for warranty would fix it, I would pay through the nose for a recovery that wasn't needed. Any suggestions?
42 Answers
There are some last ditch efforts you can try (although they are unlikely to highly unlikely to work and most likely to make things worse - I'm thinking freezing the drive or heating it up. Also dropping it and banging it strategically)
I would not take the drive back for warranty - they will almost certainly not try and recover your data - and anyway its not a warranty issue if you dropped your drive - and taking it back for replacement under warranty is a stink thing to do even if you "can get away with it".
To be honest, even $640 EU + VAT sounds cheap for a data recovery firm - but if they have clean-room facilities then that is probably the safest way to go if your data is worth it to you.
1A good lesson in why cable management is an integral part of hardening against system failure. For instance, the UPS doesn't do its job if one of your workers accidentally pulls the power cord out of the back of the server (had that happen - bad!).
As to this drive, you've toasted it and a recovery service is indicated if you have irreplaceable data on the drive (income related). Otherwise, you've paid your dues, go buy a new drive and learn the lesson that gravity shock and running drives don't mix.
It has no warranty; customer abuse voided it.
Bare drive acceleration factors (G-force) when dropped a set distance to a certain surface. It doesn't take much to damage an unprotected drive.
